After the New Jersey Devils took home the elusive “offseason championship” last summer, Monday brought a shining moment for another one of the East’s basement-dwelling squads.
It was Pierre Dorion and the Ottawa Senators’ time to pick up an arbitrary but crucial victory, with the GM and the club he oversees having the best deadline day of any team in a similar, rebuild-type situation.
Heading into Monday’s 3pm E.T. deadline Ottawa’s only goal was to maximize the quantity and quality of futures assets they would yield from shipping out as many veterans as humanly possible. The Senators recognized what they had to do, didn’t hesitate or waver on their direction and priorities, sold high, and got in early while teams still had early-round draft picks to spare.